Mostly I said what I said because I thought someone had to stick up for the pr0n-loving contingent on the list.
I agree that gratuitous sex is never good, but I also think that one person's gratuitous sex is another person's really hot encounter. I can think of a couple of erotic romance authors who are masters at making sure every scene contributes to the relationship and is plot-relevant. But I'm pretty sure lots of people would still dismiss their books as having too much gratuitous sex.
That being said, I'd so much rather read gratuitous sex than gratuitous violence. At least in romance novels--at least those written after, say, 1990--you know that the characters like each other. But I can't take graphic violence, and my tolerance for torture porn (which is how much of it comes across) is quite low.
Shannon At 11:32 PM 3/1/2010, Kim Friedman wrote:
Speaking for myself, I don't care for sex or violence if it's gratuitous, i.e., when there's no reason for it. In romance novels I get, you pretty much know that sex will come up at some point in the story because of the feelings of the protagonists. I can accept this as it fits. I really like it if there's genuine caring going on and sex is used to show there is not only desire but some sense of commitment and caring occurring. I feel uncomfortable when there's coldness and nastiness being praised. It distresses me when people are heartless toward each other and sex is a weapon. I also think it depends on what the author is trying to do in the story. If violence is used but is not regarded as glorious then I think it's there for a purpose. I do have problems with some of James Patterson's books because he overdoes the psychopathic killer thing. I don't like this "Well if you have one serial killer in the novel to scare the bejabers out of people, why not have two or more." This is overkill. I suppose that's why I'm unwilling to read horror novels. I don't like anything too gruesome. If I can't find something I like about the author's characters, it's probable I might not care for the book. If the writing's good, the story's good, and I care about the characters, I'll read a book even though I may not care for the language or there's descriptions of sex or violence. Regards, Kim. -----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Shannon Curry Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 9:29 AM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: 2 questions for the gang I'd just like to put my vote out there for mindless frivolity. I enjoy it all--strong language, explicit sex, all of it. I figure there are volunteers out there who are better at reading and proofing serious work. Me, I like fluff. I can read more of it, and I read enough serious required texts that I feel no guilt about asking for an explicit romance novel to proof. Shannon At 08:41 PM 2/26/2010, Roger Loran Bailey wrote: >I am going to have to agree with you on that one. I have nothing >against sex scenes and I have nothing against the very most graphic and >explicit sex scenes, per se. But how many body parts rubbing against >how many body parts described in how many ways can there be anyway. It >also happens that the more sex scenes and the more explicit the sex >scenes there are in a book the less interested in it I am likely to be. >That is because the book as a whole is likely to not have much depth to >it. That is to say, they tend to be mindless frivolity. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line. __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4903 (20100228) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4907 (20100302) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
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